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The USCCB can't seem to stop abusing kids.

In the past two or three months, which also happens to coincide with the Washington, D.C., press conference sponsored by the Deposit of Faith Coalition (of which Church Militant is a part), the conservative media spotlight is now shining ever more brightly on the U.S. bishops and their role in the exploitation of minors at the border.

For Catholics who understand, exploiting minors is something the U.S. hierarchy and its staffers have excelled at for decades.

One such example is an excellent article from the Christian Review last week, which blasts the USCCB. Allow us to quote a very small portion from the publication, whose title is "Are the U.S. Bishops Covering Up Child Exploitation Again?" Note the "again" part, which sets the tone right out of the gate.

Choice quotes from the article are as follows:

• "Have any of the children cared for by the Church suffered exploitation in their journey to the border or in placements facilitated by the Catholic Church, I asked. The USCCB refused to respond"
• "The USCCB's lack of transparency is unacceptable. Mounting evidence has exposed gross exploitation of children at the border. The USCCB remains the primary institutional voice opposing border restrictions, while also contracting to provide care to unaccompanied children"
• "In 2020 and 2021, the USCCB had contracts for nearly $25,000,000 each year to care for and place migrant children. What happened to these children and why won't the USCCB discuss it?"

You would think that after the sex abuse scandals of the past 70 years, the billions paid out by the bishops in secret settlement agreements, the bankrupting now of almost three dozen dioceses (and counting) to avoid having to pay any more, not to mention the wrecked lives of the children (mostly boys), the suicides, the drug addictions, the nightmares, that after all that, the scoundrels in miters would have learned a lesson. But no.

There's just too much money in it for them to care about the kids — way too much money. In fact, the total amount of money the U.S. bishops draw down from federal, state, county and municipal governments is in excess of a billion dollars.

A large chunk of that funnels to so-called Catholic Charities, which is neither Catholic nor very charitable.

...

The problem isn't the rules or guidelines or canon law or even the evil; the problem is the men in charge. They don't really see this as a life-destroying evil; they see it as a legal and public relations problem. Sex abuse is bad because of the black eye we get, not because it is a monstrous evil in and of itself.

So now fast-forward to the latest chapter of the bishops involved in exploiting children, only, this time, the children have been placed directly in their "care" by a monstrous child-killing government that is perfectly content to have children suffer, to advance its communist-driven agenda of destroying the republic.

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Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Dana Nessel charges Republican slate of electors with a felony.

In what can only be described in terms of Marxist oppression, Michigan's lesbian attorney general has brought criminal charges against the state's slate of Republican electors going back to 2020. In an unprecedented flex of authority, Dana Nessel will attempt to convince the court that the document the 16 Republicans signed was a forgery.

You'll recall that because various states had such controversy swirling around, in some blue states, like Michigan, Republicans got together and produced their own slate of electors to present to Congress and the Electoral College.

And now, three years after the fact, Nessel comes bombing in and rounds up the 16 Republicans and hits them with felony charges for their list.

Political conservatives have rallied around the 16 and even produced a legal-bill fundraising event for them last week — a livestreaming telethon carried by the conservative media outlet The Gateway Pundit.

They had multiple guests on, talking about different aspects of all this, and Church Militant was one of those guests.

Check it out.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

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Politician taken to court again for speaking out against sodomy.

Today's Vortex features Michael's Sept. 7 interview with Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, who is being taken to court again for quoting on social media the biblical stance against sodomy.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

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Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

In the ninth century, the Church's first-ever Eucharistic controversy arose between two French monks in the same monastery. It wasn't as controversial as it has later been painted, because it was really a "word war," each of them using the same words but assigning the words different meanings.

They had each written a book on the subject, with the Emperor Charles the Bald being the impetus because he wanted to better understand the Church's teaching. When the men had each died, the controversy died with them. Ah, but their books remained, and when we fast-forward to the 11th century, now the fun begins.

Another French monk/priest, Berengarius of Tours, who was well respected for his intellect as well as his simple piety, essentially held the position that Our Lord is really present in the Eucharist, just not fully. It was the theory that the Protestant reformers, especially John Calvin, would seize on 500 years later to deny transubstantiation.

...

Berengarius' stubbornness is not so much the important part here, but rather, that in seeking to have him admit his error, various councils and ecclesiastical gatherings were forced to clearly lay out, in short form, what the Church had actually believed for the first 1,000 years.

In fact, so clear had these various compositions been regarding what the Church holds and teaches about the Eucharist and the Real Presence (body, blood, soul and divinity), that a thousand years later, Pope Paul VI referred back to them and used them as sources in his own Eucharistic encyclical.

The Church has always believed in the Real Presence, even if it took some controversies and historical clashes to ink it down in precise theological language.

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Celebrate Our Lady's birthday today.

We've been saying all week, in the lead-up to today's Vortex, that today is the day the Church sets aside to honor the birthday of Mary, the Mother of God.

So a happy feast day to all of you and happy birthday to you, Blessed Mommy. And no, you shouldn't ask her how old she is. Just say the truth: Whatever your age, you look beautiful!

Now the true believers and followers of Christ have many times and in many places endured persecution by, shall we just say, "the State." Even before Nero set Rome ablaze and blamed the Christians, the Jewish leadership, which served as "the State" over Israel's religion, had launched its own persecution against the believers.

Just ask any of those murdered by Saul of Tarsus (unleashed on the believers by the Sanhedrin). In fact, it's hard and takes some thinking to actually find a time in Church history when some state leader or governmental system wasn't going after authentic believers.

Of course, there were breaks and rest periods here and there, but eventually, some state officials took a fancy to wiping out Catholics in his or their dominion, and voilà — prison, death, etc.

However, what makes the current situation largely unique is that today, the State that was founded on mostly Catholic principles is what is now attacking Catholics. And in a pretty new twist, that State is run by, you guessed it, Catholics. Of course, phony Catholics but baptized Catholics nonetheless.

And in what is a largely 21st-century phenomenon (owing to technology), that "State" is now universal like the Church it seeks to destroy. It has really come down to a battle between the universal Church and the universal anti-church (the State). Talk about not enough room in this town for both of us.

While Hell had to content itself with multiple states and empires here or there, scattered across the globe hither and yon, being used to attack the faithful, there was never a truly universal action against the Church — until now.

Simply put, the technology was just not up to it. Now, however, it is. All the global forces that exercise control over states are now able to link up and act as one combined force. That force is worldwide communism. Of course, it doesn't call itself that, but that's what it is.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

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Don't compromise on the spiritual battle.

Patriots, conservatives, the Right — whatever the group and no matter how much they may overlap — have to come to terms with a reality that many have only sort of intuited: The current war with the forces of darkness (e.g., communism) does not have just a political solution. The communists have too much control of the political machinery to simply "trust the process" (the political process).

Church Militant is always pounding the drum that we humans are a composite of body and soul, that we live in two side-by-side realities, the material world and the spiritual world, the natural and, at the same time, the supernatural order. Evil also operates in these spheres, simultaneously. When the spiritual order is overrun, the material order will disintegrate.

Too late to the game in realizing this has the "conservative" side been. Politics cannot save us. Properly ordered and run political systems are what you have when the people are moral, meaning spiritually healthy. Politics is downstream from culture, and when culture goes off, politics follows.

In a republic, political leaders mount to heights of power based on the people's choices, their votes. Those votes are based on their worldviews, their philosophies of life. So what the communists set out to do a century ago was alter people's, the citizens', philosophies of life. That would require ultimately seizing control of institutions that helped people form their worldviews.

Education was the target, both formal and news media. Institutions had to be overrun so that young minds could begin to have their intellects corrupted. The communists played the long game, their strategy even being dubbed by them the "long march through the institutions."

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

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Now go destroy communism with the Rosary.

In 1917, the Queen of Heaven came to earth to warn her children about communism and its awesome destructive power.

It is, in no uncertain words, the Death Star of the demonic, with its treacherous anti-human, anti-God ideology that has plagued humanity for over a century. And here, in the United States, it has taken over not just multiple institutions but also a political party, the Democrats.

There is a link, a connection, between America as we traditionally understand the concept and its being fought violently against by the Democrats. Communism ultimately rails against humanity and God's creation — even God Himself.

That is how, in one glance, you know its origin is the pits of Hell. The Dems have adopted the Communist Manifesto as their party platform. Period.

They detest and devalue human life at every turn, beginning with the weakest — the elderly, the preborn. Then they implement their race-baiting policies, keeping down African Americans and wiping out the family in that community, making a large portion of them completely dependent on the State.

Democratic Party policies are communist. Period. No matter what they call themselves — globalists, environmentalists, social justice warriors, socialists — they are all the same. They detest religion. They hate American exceptionalism because that exceptionalism is based on Catholic principles of the dignity of every human being created in the image of God.

They hate God, just as Satan does, and they hate humanity, just as Satan does. (Humanity is why Lucifer was cast out of the angelic realm, after all.)

That's why so many of their policies are aimed at depopulation, no matter how they get at it — "health crisis," controlling the weather, abortion, contraception. They employ them all. Communism is a sinister force that seeks to undermine and destroy the very fabric of Western civilization, our freedom and our Faith.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

The greatest battle of all time.

As we pointed out last week, the No. 1 enemy of the Faith on the world stage right now is communism. It operates under various movements: climate alarmism, globalism and so forth. And each of those movements spawns insidious consequences of its own.

One especially urgent issue striking at the very heart of Western civilization is communism's push for cancel culture. Communism is a cancer that is plaguing humanity, leaving a trail of destruction, death, and despair wherever it takes root.

And now, we're witnessing a disturbing trend right here in America — the power of cancel culture, which is a throwback to the oppressive tactics employed by communist regimes of the past.

Cancel culture seeks to silence dissenting voices, erase history and impose a narrow, ideologically driven narrative on society. It's a dangerous force that tramples on the principles of free speech and open discourse, principles that are the bedrock of any free and just society.

It's precisely why our 2021 rally against the bishops was shut down by the city of Baltimore and we had to go to court just to win back our First Amendment rights, but not without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to get that victory.

Many of you are, of course, already clued into the tactics of the commies. So the question is, What can we do in the face of these daunting challenges?

In addition to action (political and cultural) in the natural realm, we must also especially concentrate efforts in the supernatural realm as well. Both are needed. On the one hand, way too many Catholics do nothing except pray, a kind of retreat from the spiritual war into piety.

That's not good enough; it's faith and good works. That means becoming involved — on the streets, in politics and so forth. On the other hand, the "activist" Catholics too often get absorbed and even lost in the "works" part and too often neglect (or downplay the importance of) the supernatural.

Again, both are needed. We are a composite of body and soul: the natural, material order and the supernatural order. Both areas, both dynamics, must be fully engaged in the war.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

The real Catholic media vs. Church and State communists.

This Labor Day weekend marks the 15th anniversary of the Vortex, which means almost 4,000 individual episodes have been produced and aired and viewed tens of millions of times.

The very first episode aired this weekend in 2008 and focused on Oprah Winfrey and her ridiculous little guest Eckhart Tolle, who collectively have misled millions spiritually.

Originally, Vortex was not supposed to air until Jan. 1, 2009, but, because of the Obama campaign, we decided to pull it ahead a few months in hopes of influencing at least some Catholics to not vote for him. It was a good effort but obviously didn't stop Obama from getting elected.

At one point, considering Obama's lack of any real experience (or qualifications) to be president, I actually threw my hat in the ring as well. Throughout roughly the first eight or nine months of Vortex, we dedicated it to covering Obama and his slightly hidden anti-religion, anti-God agenda.

But in May 2009, it came home like a thunderbolt as the child-killer-in-chief strode across the stage at Notre Dame's commencement, and practically every bishop in America said nothing. Fewer than 90 out of more than 300 were content to remain silent in one of the greatest displays of shame in U.S. Catholic history.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

The conflict between Catholicism and evil.

Here's the big picture: The world today is in a battle between the forces of Catholicism versus communism, which is to say Catholicism versus atheism.

Communism, for all its evil and terror, is, at the end of the day, nothing more than a political system to end belief in God. Every other belief system on earth, every ideological view, is moving toward either one of those two poles.

Catholicism is of God. Atheism is out Satan. Everything else is just battles and wars and skirmishes in the great conflict. Which is not to say they are unimportant — quite the opposite. Wars are finally won by winning enough battles and seizing enough territory to plant your flag firmly atop the capitol.

But while the battles (some larger, some smaller) are being fought, you can never lose sight of the overriding war. That's what it's ultimately all about, which side gets to plant its flag.

War is exhausting. Battles wear you out. That's true of both sides. But the commies face far less opposition than the Catholic side does because Catholics and others of goodwill have simply been naive in their assessment of the reality.

Catholics historically just don't want to get involved, with the exception of the pro-life cause. And even there, it's not like enormous percentages of Catholics were involved. And when it came to voting, gigantic numbers still cast their votes for the child-killing communists.

Likewise, when it comes to charitable giving, Catholics are generally bringing up the rear compared to Protestants. Like Bp. Sheen said, "Catholics have all truth and no zeal." Why that is needs to be explored. But for the moment, let's just leave it where it is for this Vortex episode, and that is that communism has made such rapid and overpowering progress because most Catholics just don't care, or care enough.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.